CALGARY JUDGE’S DECISION: A GREEN LIGHT FOR “HONOR” KILLINGS?

Jul.20,2010

It’s official! We already have the first sharia-compliant decision in Canada. Last week a judge in Calgary set free a devout Muslim woman who strangled to death her “promiscious” and unrully 14-year old daughter.

Aset Magomadova came to Canada in 2004 with her daughter, son, and sister. She was sponsored as a refugee by Canadian organizations, among which was the Anglican Church, in settled in Calgary. They arrived from Chechnya, where the local Muslim militants have been fighting with the Russian government for many years.

The family suffered from that war as well: Magomedova’s husband was killed, she lost part of her foot as a result of explosion, her son was born with cerebral palsy.

The life in the new country didn’t start well. Neither Aset nor her daughter Aminat could adapt and learn English well. Aset kept to herself and prayed several times a day in her sewing room. Aminat was teased at school because of her weight problem and her poor English. As she grew up, her problems increased: she started to use drugs and often was providing sex in exchenge for them. She often ran away from home and frequented youth shelters. What was even more irritating to her mother was that she was boasting about all that.

On at least one occasion the devout Muslim Aset told a health worker that her daughter was a disgrace to the family. They both fought with each other, often throwing things at each other. In the fall of 2006, Aminat physically attacked a teacher and was charged with assault. On February 26, 2007, she was supposed to go to court to be sentenced, but she refused. The mother started an argument with Aminat in front of her son and sister. Then they continued the fight in the sewing room. When Aset came out alone, she anounced that her daughter was dead. Then she made several long distance calls to Europe and only after that she called 911.

When the police arrived, she explained that her daughter tried to attack her with a knife, so she strangled her with a scarf in self defense. Two knives were found in the room, but none of them had fingerprints, blood or DNA of either of the two women.

After a lengthy investigation and a trial, the initial charge of second-degree murder was dropped and the Calgary Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Sal LoVecchio convicted Magomadova of manslaughter. And his final sentence was PROBATION! It is hard to believe, but that’s the truth: a human being was deliberately killed and all what the killer got was PROBATION. She won’t spend any time in jail and she’ll be a free person. Obviously, the life of a 14-year old girl is not more valuable than the life of an animal.

Of course, in his 25-page decision the judge tried to show that he was taking into consideration the killer’s special circumstances that required “slightly different solution”, although that solution meant to let a murderer go free… Jennifer Koshan (a Calgary law professor quoted by Calgary Herald) tried to explain that the judge saw as highly unusual that a mother killed her child, especiually and older child, which made him take this strange decision.

If the esteemed judge had done his research, he would have found out that in many countries dominated by radical Islam such events are not unusual. Killing a daughter, who had “disgraced” her family is not only accepted, but also thought as a highly moral act. Such killers are hardly ever prosecuted under sharia law and the most that they get are some token “sentences”. He also would have found that we have already had several such cases in Canada, and Magomadova’s case is not an exception.

So in fact, Judge LoVecchio unwittingly supported an “honor killing”. Hopefully, the prosecution would appeal to get some justice for the dead girl. It is totally unacceptable (at least according to the Western moral standards) to kill a young human being, because somebody, even her parents, didn’t like her behavior.

What is even more disturbing is the precedent created. If a woman is charged with an Islamic “honor killing”, she or her lawyers can always use this precedent to walk free. If you remember, recently in the Toronto area, a Muslim school girl (Aqsa Parvez) was killed by her father and brother for “disgracing” the family (the “disgrace” being her refusal to wear hijab). Both of them received life sentences. However, with LoVecchio’s decision all they have to do in similar cases in the future is to blame the killing on the mother and if they come up with some good sob story, they will get away with murder without any problems.

Is this horror going to be the future fate of all girls who are not submissive enough?! That might be fine and dandy in Saudi Arabia, but what about Canada? Are we going to let this happen here?

And one more word about the people who started the whole mess – Magomadova’s sponsors. After the sentence was read, one of them, who was present in the court, said that she was relieved that the judge showed “compassion and mercy”. She stated further that if you know those people well, you will understand their situation.

So what do we have here: a group of sponsors, among which the Anglican Church, bring to Canada a disfunctional family with severe health problems. That family is uprooted from their country and put in a completely different environment, to which they cannot adapt. That only aggravates their problems and everything ends up with a murder.

I am sure that the sponsors didn’t pay a penny of the hefty health and counselling bills of that family that were all dumped on the Canadian taxpayer. And what about Magomadova’s legal bills for the three years from the date of the murder to the sentencing? Did the sponsors paid any of those? And the coming bills during the appeal process – there will be hundreds of thousands of dollars that could have been used in better way, but now will go to the defense of a murderer.

Sometimes it is hard to figure out if those bleeding hearts have any common sense. If they helped that family to get their safety in Chechnya in their natural environment, all that would have never happened.